Palm, Hersha Hospitality: Early Volume Plays

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Several stocks trading near $5 were poised to move on above-average volume during Friday's session.

Palm (PALM) shares were set to drop Friday after the company posted an adjusted loss of 61 cents a share, which is worse than the loss of 42 cents a share that analysts had predicted. "Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong," Palm said in a statement. Kaufman and Morgan Joseph analysts separately downgraded the stock to sell from hold and slashed price targets. The 50-day average daily volume for Palm is 19.1 million, according to the Nasdaq. Palm shares closed Thursday at $5.65 but fell 15% to $4.80 in Friday's premarket session.

ICx Technologies (ICXT) should trade higher after the advanced sensor technologies company said it expects to post full-year earnings of 6 cents to 25 cents a share on revenue of $212 million to $226 million. ICx called the revenue guidance "conservative." Analysts, on average, expect ICx to report a full-year profit of 7 cents a share on revenue of $211.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters. The guidance came as ICx reported a fourth-quarter loss of 6 cents a share, which was wider than the consensus target for a loss of 3 cents a share. The 50-day average daily volume for ICx is 415,000. Shares closed Thursday at $7.45.

Lloyds Banking Group (LYG) jumped by 31 cents, or 9.1%, to $3.72 in the premarket session after the bank said its banking net interest margin "is trending in line with recent guidance and this has supported a good level of income growth" and that it expects to be profitable in 2010. Lloyds added that costs remain under control and impairment provisions are trending lower than expected. The three-month average daily volume for Lloyds is 5.6 million, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Hersha Hospitality Trust (HT) was set to tumble after the hotel owner announced a public offering of 19 million common shares with a par value of a penny per share. The three-month average daily volume for Hersha Hospitality is 1.5 million. The stock closed Thursday at $4.52 and fell 6.6% in late trading.

-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston.

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